The Daughters of Bei Fong
by WargishBoromirFan
Summary: Toph-centric oneshots exploring possible origins of Lin Bei Fong. Scenario 3: In which Sokka and Toph are closer than the dreaded F-word: Family.
1. Tea and Discomfort

**A/N: **I'm just a Warg with a computer. I never owned all this flying and magic and awesome and stuff.

So, I have been egregiously spoilered as to the Legend of Korra via TV Tropes, including the name of a certain chief of police and the statue of her mother. That leaves me wondering just how much got snuck under the radar, as far as Chief Lin's history is concerned, so of course my brain comes up with multiple scenarios, ranging from "Radar-Smuggling" ala Pinako Rockbell to "Potentially World-building" ala Melina Shield to the expected in-between...

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><p><em>1. In which Zuko can barely finish a sentence without a spit-take. <em>

"So you're… really-?" Trust the Firelord to stumble over a simple question when he ought to very well know the answer, what with two of his own.

"Ready to get out of this city. It's made me so fat and out of shape that I ended up with a kid in my belly." Toph applied her usual brand of pity for her discomfited friend, cutting Zuko off before he really embarrassed himself.

"Somehow you and civilization never really seemed to coexist peacefully," Mai added delicately around a sip of her tea.

Toph privately agreed, but Zuko seemed eager to smooth over any potential insult. "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"You." She had waited to answer until Zuko had taken shelter behind his cup, and was not disappointed with the spray of tea fountaining from her guest's mouth. "Mai and I still hang out with you even when you do that, don't we?"

"Who's the father, Toph?" Mai asked more directly, passing Zuko a handkerchief. While the Fire Lady doubtlessly carried just as many knives as ever, having two young children demanded that she use a few of her hidden caches for treats and cleaning supplies. Even Toph had gotten in the habit of tucking away a few bits of hard candy for the kids, while they were visiting her. As gloomy as their parents could be, the little princesses were entirely too adorable for their own good.

"Not Sparky, here. Beyond that, don't worry about it." She shrugged and picked up her own cup, bare toes curling restlessly beneath the table as she felt for the slightest change in posture from the Fire Nation rulers. "He's not in the picture, anyway."

"Toph, if you need anything…" Zuko put a hand on her arm, his touch delicate and warm.

"You know you don't have to ask if you want help kicking his butt," his wife volunteered. "It's always good to have something to keep our lives from getting dull."

Mai wasn't as close to the rest of the old gang as Zuko was, though Toph had found a kindred spirit in the Fire Lady, beneath her cultured air of bored disdain. It was sweet of her to offer. "Thanks, but I already turned down Sokka, Suki, and Katara's offers, so I guess I oughta play fair." She offered them a devil-may-care grin, opening her free palm and twining her thick bracelet up into a wickedly-spiked knuckle guard. "Or as fair as the Blind Bandit, Master of Metal-bending can be, when dealing with such poor schlubs."

Zuko removed his hand; both he and Mai groaned over the sound of the Firelord's palm making contact with his forehead. "What? Seriously, Mai, Zuko, I'm fine. And the kid's going to be fine, too." If she said it enough, maybe it would be true. "Though if you happen to know of a good babysitter, I guess I could use one, every now and then."

The Fire Nation royals held their silence a moment. If they shared a secretive look, they didn't need to hide their expressions from Toph.

"Also, I'm trusting you guys to inform me if Suki, Aang, or Ty Lee offer me any ridiculously girly baby clothes. Or anything else that'd make me glad I was blind," she forged on relentlessly.

"I think we can handle that much," Zuko said.


	2. The Happy Avatar

**A/N: **Wargy Wargy Avatar Owner? Nah, it just doesn't quite fit. At first I figured this one would be the most commonly written by others and therefore the hardest to put a fresh spin upon, but nothing like nods to the fandom and Wilde to make the scene twice as long as expected.

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><p><em>2. In which Aang and Toph consider their priorities and giant statues.<em>

"It looks awesome, doesn't it?" Of course it was awesome. She'd stomped around it, climbed up and down all over it, felt the smooth sun-warmed metal beneath her fingers, and had even been tempted to change the pose, just a little bit, but had refrained at least until Aang had gotten to see it for himself. There was just something about the majesty of the work that left it off-limits until all her students had gotten a chance to see.

"It's a statue, all right," Aang agreed, walking around the base and then summoning up enough wind to examine it from a higher angle. Normally it annoyed Toph when he flew out of her sensory range, but it was worth it if he properly appreciated the artwork. "And your students at the academy did this?" he asked as he landed.

"All with metal-bending." Toph crossed her arms and attempted to keep her grin smug instead of idiotically giddy. "There's stone beneath, but I called dibs on the first solid gold larger-than-life statue and I wanted to give them the chance to practice before my close-up."

"Well, they did a great job, considering that I haven't been able to stop by Republic City very often." Aang rubbed the top of his head, rasping uncomfortably at the stubble. "It really does look like me."

"You know that if I didn't have kids to teach, I'd be running all around the various nations with fewer diplomatic conferences and more camping in the dirt, so don't feel bad about not visiting more often." Toph punched him in the arm. Because he was the Avatar, she figured that meant he needed more people to poke at him - Mai, Suki, and the universe in general knocked enough sense into Zuko and Sokka on a regular basis, but Katara sheltered her husband like a mother polar bear-dog, the poor silly thing. "What you should feel bad about is if you've been slacking off in your training - I've got nine-year-old boys bending rings of iron in half without touching them, so if I find you need a seven-step song and dance number to lift a pebble, we're gonna start over from scratch," Toph threatened.

"I'm good," Aang insisted. Toph sent a cobblestone flying at shoulder-height, satisfied when a patch of the street between them erupted in a defensive shield.

She tapped the stone twice against the barrier before smoothing out the mess. "Two for flinching. Not too bad, though."

"Hey, Toph? Did you mean to pull from the statue just now?" Aang asked.

Toph's unseeing eyes narrowed. Why would she dismantle this statue of her first student, made by her protégés? "Of course not. And I can figure out where I'm taking my materials from."

"I swear it wasn't me," Aang protested. The blind woman just held up a hand.

"Can it, Twinkle-toes. Hold still and keep the wind down for me. Anybody walking suspiciously around here?" Most of the crowd gave the Avatar an awed berth, especially with the prickly Metal-bending master at his side. Toph cultivated a wide berth of her own, outside the school. But there was someone breathing guiltily, and it wasn't just Aang. She could faintly make out the echoes of a pounding heartbeat, the tremble of feet as someone huddled off balance due to extra weight…

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The voice rose in pitch and volume over the sound of clattering metal as Toph stepped towards the frightened sounds. She put her fists on her hips and stared above the culprit.

"Maybe we ought to talk about what's going on before we jump to any conclusions," Aang attempted to soothe the flustered captive. "She's younger than Bumi," Aang murmured. "My Bumi."

"So, kid, what are you doing with a hunk of gold from the Avatar statue?" Toph asked. Aang elbowed her, but Aang was always a big old softie.

"Well, while you were bending… I figured no one would miss it; it's just a little from the base and it's mostly rock, but it's enough for at least three meals if I take it easy…" The Avatar's robes rustled as he knelt before the thieving little kid. Aw, Aang wasn't going to fall for the same sort of sob story they'd pulled at that age, was he?

"What's your name, sweetie? Don't you have someone who can help take care of you?" Yes, he was. Toph groaned under her breath.

"M-m-my name is… Do I have to tell _her_ my name?" the kid stuttered.

"Yeah, 'cause I'll be the one keeping you in protective custody until your parents show up." She could feel Aang's nudge of wind, an unspoken warning to dial it back, but screw that.

The girl's voice dropped even further. "That could be a while… they're - not around anymore."

"Perhaps I should take her with me," Aang suggested softly.

Toph snorted. "You and Katara take care of your own kids. I can handle one self-trained bender."

"Toph…" While Aang wasn't shy about using the old "hundred-and-thirty-six-year-old reincarnation of the world's spirit raised to the standards of an extinct culture and master of five different types of bending" line to dance to the beat of his own horn, he did try to be nice to everyone, and sometimes that meant subtly encouraging Toph to recognize her own faults and step back so that others could cover for them.

One of her main flaws was a deaf ear to subtlety. Another was pigheadedness. She looked upon these traits as something to be proud of. "Let me have a better look at you, kid." Toph stepped even with the voices and squatted next to Aang, finding the chunk of defaced masonry with one hand as she leaned in towards the girl.

She was a skinny little thing, curled into a shaking ball, but by the spirits, she underestimated herself even if she had no touch at haggling and that was "mostly rock" coming up to Toph's knee. "Do you really have to shout at people to see them?" the kid asked. Toph laughed hard enough that she probably could see the kid in the echoes, if she'd bothered to pay attention. "I know a couple colonist kids, and they told me stories about the Avatar and company," the girl explained sheepishly.

Her chin was turned slightly to Toph's right when she reached out to clasp the jaw line, towards Aang. "And you still took a bit off the statue right in front of the guy it's based on? I'm blind, but you have _guts_, kid."

"Toph, I appreciate that your students did a great job on the statue, a really great job, but there are other things that are more important right now," Aang said, as if she didn't already know. "Not to be ungrateful, but maybe the gold plating could be put to better use than making me look fancy."

Toph punched his arm, her hand still gently cupping the girl's face. "No point in putting it up where people will just try to chip it off the block, anyway."


	3. Stronger than Blood

**A/N: **The universe says that I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender. I make it too easy. (Except for when it comes to showing Toph in an actual romantic pairing. What can I say; I'm all about the bromance.) 'Sides, this fandom impresses to overwhelms me with just how fast y'all are about looking for the update. Thanks for all the favorites, alerts, and reviews. There may be one more wrap-up with Katara guest-starring for the full Gaang, but that'll probably be all until the official Air date.

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><p><em>3. In which Sokka and Toph are stronger than the dreaded F-word: family.<em>

"You're sure about this? You're totally, completely, and permanently satisfied? There's no chance you'd back out at the last minute?" Sokka grilled her, despite all her attempts to ignore him.

Toph gave her friend her best wolfish grin. "Yes, yes, except that if I wanted somebody to second-guess me, I'd go talk with my parents, and no. What's got you so concerned anyway, Sokka?"

"I want to be sure he makes you happy, is all. You know you're family to us." Toph had to fight a smile at that, and the easiest method she knew was to turn it into an actual fight.

"As in I can kick your butt like your family!" Toph pulled the taller Water Tribe man in for a headlock and noogie, with no regard for her dress or Sokka's formal wolf-tail. He protested and straightened, pulling her off the ground and spinning until she was disoriented. There were very few people that Toph let get away with such a technique without immediately flattening them. She laughed as she pushed his arm away from her waist and regained her feet. "You're better than family, Moony Man. Don't start acting like a dumb overprotective older brother to me when you didn't do it for Katara."

Sokka circumspectly helped her smooth the wrinkles out of her dress. She didn't care about them, but it was the principle of the thing. "Hey, Aang kept his hands off until my sister jumped him, and when Katara wants something, I've found it best not to argue. You, on the other hand, -"

"Have not yet beat it into you that I can figure out my love life without having to 'sort out my feelings' for a year and a half?" Toph interrupted him with a game crack of her knuckles.

"I'm just saying that you've gone through a few rocky patches, is all." Sokka shifted from one foot to the other. Horrible puns and twitchiness - the guy had a way of dealing with uncomfortable topics, didn't he?

"Yeah, I've had my heart broken a few times." Toph kept her voice flat and steady. This conversation was beginning to come dangerously close to emotional territory, something Toph expected more from Aang and Katara than Sokka, but maybe it was a good sign that he was observant enough to know his own part in her history. That was why he was one of her best friends. That was why he could have been - a traitorous part of her insisted _had been_; first crushes meant something even if it was not mutual and she was above such things, long past it, - even more. "But I got over it. And we knew from the very beginning what we're getting and what we're giving. I can be myself with him and he's cool with it. He's honest and open and I love him for it. You guys are better than my family, but if ever I wanted to turn that into more than a dirty word, it'd be with him. We're gonna make sure that the next generation of Bei Fongs are actually proud to be seen with their parents."

Toph found herself engulfed in a hug so quickly that she didn't even hear the step. "I am losing so much money on this wedding - I made a bet that you'd never get married, - but it is totally worth it to hear you so happy."

"You idiot," she laughed into his shirt, trying to keep her eyes dry as she smacked the back of his head. "How were you supposed to collect on 'never?'"

He let her go, kind enough to offer mutual blindness to any tears that either might have shed. "Well, every year, on our anniversary, Suki pays up. So, if you want to cancel the big wedding now and sneak off and elope without telling any of the Kyoshi Warriors, especially Ty Lee, or Aang, Katara, Zuko, Iroh, Bato, or Dad, I might be able to collect on one more year." Sokka rubbed his hands together as he attempted to formulate his evil plan. "'Cause that way we still have the big party that we might as well enjoy anyway and you two don't have to worry about all the fuss that comes with him taking the Bei Fong name in public."

"If you haven't noticed, I'm in a wedding dress. I've already been through the worst of the hoopla and I'm not doing this twice, so lead me to that altar, Sokka." Her parents would suck it up. She was finally honoring her family, after all.


End file.
